Above ground is ugly, and less reliable, in terms of frequency (about half) and total duration (about 20% more, since underground takes around 1.6x longer per outage) [1]. But, underground is so expensive that they end up being a net social loss, at least in NY [2].

[1] https://pdi2.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/51-EdisonElectIn...

[2] https://dps.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2023/09/final-repo...